| name | using-grove |
| description | Use when you want to orchestrate a fleet of independent, parent-level coding agents with Grove — spin up isolated per-task workspaces (tmux + git worktree, host or container) across model providers and harnesses, to divide, parallelize, and independently review large or multi-part work. Covers the CLI verbs and the MCP tool surface by id. |
Using Grove
Grove manages a fleet of independent,
parent-level coding agents — not sub-agents inside your own context. Where
you'd spawn sub-agents that share your session, Grove spins up whole separate
agent processes, each with its own runtime, its own context window, and its
own git worktree (or the repo root) — addressable from the outside: create,
message, watch, pause, resume, respawn, kill.
Reach for it when a task is too big, too parallel, or too cross-cutting for
one agent in one context:
- Decompose and parallelize. "Build the backend while another agent
builds the frontend" — split by component, spin up one workspace per slice,
each in its own clean worktree so they never step on each other's files.
- Triage at scale. Forty Sentry issues, a Linear backlog — one workspace
per issue or per cluster, each agent investigates and reports back
independently; you review the results, not the noise.
- Work one ticket from several angles at once. Different aspects of the
same ticket (implementation, tests, docs) each in their own clean
environment, run in parallel instead of serially.
- Independent review. Point separate agents (different models, different
harnesses) at the same diff for uncorrelated second opinions.
The model
- One workspace = one isolated runtime for one agent. A dedicated git
worktree (or the repo root for a lightweight/ad-hoc case) plus a tmux
session running that agent's own CLI — Claude Code, Codex, or any other
configured harness — on the host or inside a container.
- Model- and harness-agnostic by design. Every workspace picks its own
agent and model. The point is giving each slice of work the harness best
suited to it, not stretching one agent across everything.
- You own the fleet; each member owns its own task. Decide how to split
work (by component, by ticket, by review lens, by repo), spawn one
workspace per slice, then poll/steer/collect — a map step and a reduce
step, with real isolation so one agent's mistakes or long tool calls never
block another's.
CLI — the fleet control surface
Run from inside any git repo Grove knows about (grove config add-project
registers a repo you're not currently inside):
grove create <title> [--agent <name>] [--model <id>] [--message <prompt>] [--branch/--base/...]
— spin up a new workspace and kick it off with an initial task.grove ls — list this repo's workspaces (JSON).grove show [<ref>] — one workspace's git + agent + transcript + live-pane
state at a glance.grove message <ref> <text> — steer a running workspace.grove pause|resume|respawn|kill <ref> — lifecycle.grove attach <ref> — drop into the workspace's live tmux session yourself.grove sessions list|show|dump — browse recorded agent-session transcripts
across the project.
<ref> is a workspace id or unique id prefix. Full flag reference for any
command: grove <command> --help.
MCP — the same fleet, as tools
If Grove's MCP server is connected, the same lifecycle is available as tools
— useful for managing the fleet without shelling out: grove_create_workspace,
grove_list_workspaces, grove_get_workspace, grove_peek_workspace,
grove_send_workspace_message, grove_pause_workspace, grove_resume_workspace,
grove_respawn_workspace, grove_kill_workspace, grove_attach_instruction,
grove_remap_workspace_session, grove_list_agents. Each tool's own schema
documents its inputs — read those rather than guessing here.
Configuration
Setting up agents, init scripts, models, or MCP servers for Grove itself is
a separate concern from using the fleet. If a configuring-grove skill is
available in this environment, use it for that; grove skills install /
grove mcp install (or grove config init --with-onboarding) is how this
skill and Grove's own MCP server got here in the first place. For anything
this skill doesn't cover, grove --help or a repo-aware research tool
pointed at bearlike/Grove will get you unstuck faster than guessing.
